Known displays are usually rigid so as to form an inflexible display. In recent years, a wish for non-rigid, i.e. flexible, displays has risen. Such displays enable new ways of applying displays. Up till now however, it has proved to be a challenging task to manufacture flexible displays that have desired mechanical properties with respect to their flexibility, and at the same time show quality and reliability that customers expect from a display.
A promising method for manufacturing flexible displays involves the use of organic semiconductive materials. These materials may combine desirable semiconductive properties with desirable flexibility. During manufacturing, usually a dielectric layer is arranged in between a first and a second patterned conductive layer portion for separating the first and second patterned conductive layer portions. Then, a patterned semiconductive layer portion is often provided, at least partly, on top of the second patterned conductive layer portion.
Usually, semiconductive materials are deposited as a blanket and are patterned afterwards. Such patterning may involve covering the blanket of semiconductive layer with a resist pattern, followed by an etching step. However, during etching, in particular during the last stage of the etching which may require over-etching, the second patterned conductive layer portion and the dielectric layer portion are often also exposed to the etching. As a result, the second patterned conductive layer portion and the dielectric layer portion may be partly removed as a result of the etching. Manufacturing of pixel control structures has shown that such removal may deteriorate reliability of the pixel control structures. Especially for flexible displays, where achieving reliability is often more difficult because of the desired flexibility, such deterioration may be significant.